An inning that seemingly would never end Friday finally did with a bang in the second and final game of the Show-Me Collegiate League championship series.
Repeated walks on both sides resulted in the third inning taking 43 minutes to complete. Fans begging for action were rewarded, as Midwest Nationals third baseman Carson Shaver made a play of a lifetime in the Nats’ series-clinching 8-0 rout of the Queen City Crush.
After the Crush loaded the bases on three walks, Shaver ended the third by leaping to make a fully-extended catch on a foul ball and flipping over the railing along the third-base dugout in the process.
“I went over there thinking I’d have a chance. I kept giving it a chance and it happened to spin back toward the dugout and I put a glove on it,” Shaver said. “You get pretty nervous once you get to the railing on a play like that. But for a third baseman, that’s like robbing someone of a home run.
“I love those kind of plays,” the Ozark grad added. “You don’t make the play on all of them. But I like to always give them full effort because the plays on those that you do make, you’re a hero. If you don’t make it, you weren’t really expected to in the first place.”
Players and fans were left in awe of the memorable catch.
“We started calling Carson ‘Shaver-enado’ for a reason this summer,” center fielder and fellow Ozark grad Jake Skaggs said in reference to Cardinals third baseman Nolan Aranado. “That was one of the greatest plays I’ve seen.”
“I didn’t expect him to go ‘Superman’ over the railing like he did, pretty exciting stuff,” Nationals coach Brandon Mozley said. “Our guys weren’t there to catch him when he went over the railing. I was a little scared for him. But he popped up showing the ball.”
Any Olympian gymnast would be proud to have the same kind of landing Shaver had. He kept himself from harm’s way by getting his glove and right hand in front of him to brace his fall on the concrete in the dugout.
“Whenever I flipped and realized I wasn’t going back toward the field but wasn’t going into the dugout, I said a few things I can’t say (in print),” Shaver said. “But I did a handstand on the steps and ended up on my feet.”
Shaver also starred in the batter’s box. He was 3-for-4 with a pair of RBIs.
All this after his night started with a broken bat foul out behind the plate in his first at-bat.
“Usually, you break your bat in your first at-bat and it’s not a good sign for the rest of the game,” Shaver said. “I always try to keep a level head and stick to the things I normally do and fight each at-bat. It ended up working out for me.”
Shaver finished the summer with a .383 batting average over 43 at-bats.
“He missed some games because he was doing an internship (for his father’s car warranty business),” Mozley said. “If he had been here for the whole season, he’d be in the running for the (league) MVP.”
Show-Me League officials are expected to announce the league’s Player of The Year and Pitcher of The Year on Sunday.
Skaggs, who capped his .391 summer by going 1-for-3 with two RBIs, figures to be a strong contender for the Player of The Year honor. He had 27 hits, 25 runs scored, 23 walks and 15 RBIs. His defense in center Friday was stellar.
“It was a summer of growth for me,” Skaggs said. “I’ll cherish this summer forever.”
The Nationals outscored the Crush 18-1 and outhit them 20-10 in the two games of the championship series.
“I love this group of guys,” Mozley said. “They gave me a love for the game again. I needed that. I was dragging a little bit. I had a long spring coaching youth baseball. The game had worn me down some. But this summer these guys revitalized me.”
